


Goodbye

by 0bviousLeigh



Series: Yuma is a Girl [18]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal
Genre: Gender or Sex Swap, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-07
Updated: 2017-10-07
Packaged: 2019-01-10 08:48:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12295632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/0bviousLeigh/pseuds/0bviousLeigh
Summary: Yuma claps her hands to her mouth. She remembers Rio, right after the accident, her body covered in bandages and an oxygen mask strapped to her face. No no no no no, that can’t happen to Tetsuo and Takashi too, it just can’t!





	Goodbye

**Author's Note:**

> I'M BACK BABY!!
> 
>  
> 
> Welcome to my episode 33-34 rewrite. Bring tissues.

“HEART BURNING!” Mr. Heartland’s hologram screams before bursting into confetti.

Yuma scowls. “May you have heartburn for the rest of your life,” she says under her breath.

Kotori shakes her head. “Don’t be rude, he’s never done anything to you.”

Yuma sighs. “Whatever. Let’s get going and meet up with the others.”

Cathy and Tokunosuke are waiting for Yuma and Kotori at Heartland square, but Tetsuo and Takashi are nowhere to be found.

“Did they head off without us?” Tokunosuke wonders.

“Man, and we had a really good story for them, too,” Yuma says. She grabs her phone and dials Tetsuo, putting the phone on speaker. When he picks up she snaps, “Bro, where are you? We’re all waiting.”

“Sorry Yuma!” Tetsuo says. “Takashi and I got invited to duel a celebrity duelist, we’re already at the place where we’re meeting him.”

“Oh?” Yuma asks, “Where? Which duelist?”

“It’s Four!” Takashi yells, “We’re going to duel him!”

Yuma’s blood runs cold. Four? It can’t be the same Four who spells his name IV, the man who hurt Rio…can it? How many people who are duelists could go by the name Four or IV?

Cathy squeals, “Oh, I’m so jealous!”

“NO!” Yuma shrieks. She grips her phone tight in both hands. “Tetsuo, you have to turn him down! Get out of there, where are you, don’t do it! He’s the one who—”

“Calm down, Yuma,” Tetsuo says, “Look, he’s here, I gotta go.”

“DON’T!” Yuma wails, but Tetsuo has already hung up.

Kotori looks at Yuma in horror. “I wanted to tell you,” she says, “IV is famous, everyone thinks he’s amazing.”

Cathy and Tokunosuke look at Yuma in shock. “What’s wrong?” They ask.

Yuma claps her hands to her mouth. She remembers Rio, right after the accident, her body covered in bandages and an oxygen mask strapped to her face. No no no no no, that can’t happen to Tetsuo and Takashi too, it just can’t!

Yuma struggles to get the words out, “IV is the one who was dueling Rio when she got burned. He’s the one who implied to Ryoga the other day that the accident wasn’t an accident.”

Cathy and Tokunosuke look horrified. Cathy sways on her feet. “And now he’s dueling our friends?” She whimpers.

“We have to stop them!” Yuma cries. “How do we find out where they are?”

“Don’t worry!” Tokunosuke cries, whipping out his phone, “I have tracking devices installed on all your phones! We can find them!”

He has…oh boy, Yuma’s going to talk to this kid about that later.

 

 

By the time the group finds Tetsuo and Takashi, the duel is over. The two of them are lying, battered and bruised, in a construction zone. Yuma is the first to reach them. She checks them both for a pulse and pleads, “Wake up, wake up, oh please wake up!”

Tetsuo stirs and opens his eyes. “Takashi…” he mutters, “Blood…”

Yuma frantically checks Takashi over. She touches the back of his head and her hand comes away sticky. He is indeed bleeding.

There’s a roar of a motorcycle and an almighty crash. Yuma looks up in time to see Ryoga smashing his way through a gate, and he skids to a stop in front of the man who can only be IV. A shiver runs down Yuma’s spine as she gets to her feet. IV has the most evil eyes she’s ever seen on a human.

“Found you,” Ryoga snarls. He gets off his bike. “Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten your biggest fan already?”

Yuma wants to call out to Ryoga, but she’s frozen. Kotori, Cathy, and Tokunosuke kneels beside Takashi and Tetsuo, whispering that they need to get the duo to the hospital.

Across the construction site, IV laughs. “Oh, I did forget you. By the way, how’s your precious little sister doing?”

Yuma doesn’t even recognize the god-awful wail that leaves her mouth. She races across the site, past Ryoga, and launches herself at IV. She just manages rake the nails of her right hand down his face, and she reaches for his throat with her left, but she’s grabbed around her waist and hauled back before she can get a good grip.

“Yuma, no!” Ryoga screams, wrestling Yuma away from IV. “He’s not worth it!”

“LET ME GO!” Yuma screeches. She squirms in Ryoga’s grasp, her eyes locked on IV. He’s got a hand to his cheek and he’s bleeding where Yuma scratched him. It’s not enough. “I’LL RIP YOUR EYES OUT OF YOUR HEAD AND FEED THEM TO THE VULTURES!” Yuma vows.

“Stop!” Ryoga shouts in Yuma’s ear, “Rio wouldn’t want you to do this!”

Yuma lets out a scream so loud it feels like her throat is ripping in half. “She was my best friend!” Yuma screams at IV, “You almost killed her! What did she ever do to you?! She was twelve, she was just a little girl!” Yuma bares her teeth and snarls, “I hope you burn in hell! I’m glad you have that scar on your face, now you’re as ugly on the outside as you are on the inside! YOU HIDEOUS MONSTER!”

IV takes a step forward, but a boy Yuma didn’t even notice throws his arm out. A beam of red light shoots towards Yuma, but Ryoga shields her and the light wraps around his wrist. The boy says something to IV, and IV starts to walk away. He flashes his golden heart frame in Ryoga’s direction, and says he’ll see Ryoga in the finals.

“COWARD!” Yuma screams. “You won’t even answer for what you did!”

Ryoga gets his hands on Yuma’s shoulders and he turns her around to face him. He gives her a shake. “Enough!” He shouts. His eyes are full of tears. “You said enough,” he whispers.

Yuma’s knees give out and she slumps against Ryoga’s chest. She sobs into his jacket.

Ryoga hugs her. “It’s okay,” he murmurs. “It’s going to be okay.”

“Yuma,” Kotori says. Yuma lifts her head and wipes her cheeks. Kotori gestures behind her. “Cat-chan, Tokunosuke and I are going to take Tetsuo and Takashi to the hospital.”

Yuma steps away from Ryoga. He’s still anchored to whoever this other guy is. “I’m staying here,” Yuma tells her.

Kotori nods and squeezes Yuma’s hand. “Be careful, both of you,” she says.

Ryoga activates his duel disk. The boy across from him activates his own, and Yuma notices that he has a duel tattoo and a glowing symbol on the back of his hand. The screen that appears above his head identifies him as III.

Unable to hold back, Yuma screams, “Is your name ‘ill’ or ‘three?’”

The boy’s eye twitches. “It’s Three.”

“So you’re, what, in the same gang as that hideous monster IV?” Yuma asks.

III turns to Yuma, eyes blazing. “He’s my brother.”

Yuma claps slowly. “You must be so proud that he burned a little girl and just landed two boys in the hospital,” she says scathingly.

III ignores her, and Yuma decides to keep a lid on her comments since Ryoga needs to be dueling. Astral floats next to her, and Yuma puts her hand behind her back. Astral takes hold of it and squeezes. III plays a deck that Yuma might find interesting if she could get over his relation to IV. The biggest shock of his deck is Number 32, and it’s even more shocking when III seems to allow Ryoga to get the Number on his field.

Yuma bites her lip as she watches Ryoga struggle with the Number. She doesn’t know what to do, she’s never had to fight against the control of a Number. What _can_ she do?

 

* * *

 

 **‘Give in,’** A voice whispers to him.

Ryoga shuts his eyes, but it does no good; he can see the beast looming in front of him. It reaches out with one giant claw, and the claw pierces Ryoga’s chest. He lets out a cry of pain, and the voice says,

**‘Just give in, it’s pointless to fight me.’**

Ryoga has been fighting for so long…maybe it is time to give up.

But Yuma’s face suddenly appears in his mind. Her smile, her scowl, her tears, he’s seen them all in the last few days. She believes in him. And Rio, she’s counting on Ryoga. She would never let him hear the end of it if she knew he gave into a card, of all things.

And he pictures the two of them, sitting on the sofa in matching pajamas, reciting the words he finds so stupid but remembers so well.

“Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered…” they would say it together, in dreamy tones, in giggles, in whispers because it was 3 AM and they should have been sleeping. It was their favorite part of the movie.

 _‘I have fought my way here to the castle beyond the Goblin City to take back the child you have stolen,’_ Ryoga thinks. He stares the monster down, willing the claw to retreat from his chest. _‘For my will is as strong as yours and my kingdom is as great…’_

 

* * *

 

 

“You have no power over me!” Ryoga shouts. The number 32 appears on the back of his hand, but Ryoga appears as strong and confident as he ever has been.

Yuma lets out a cheer and she hops around joyfully. “You did it, you resisted the Number!” She pumps her fist in the air. “Thank you, Jim Henson!”

III looks utterly taken aback, but he recovers from his shock. He seems confident that he can win, but Yuma knows better. Ryoga told the Number off, and that means the duel is as good as his. III has clearly underestimated him from the start, and there’s no coming back from that

Sure enough, Ryoga does win. III tosses Ryoga a heart piece and a card—Numbers 32—before he also shows off a filled-in frame and says that he’ll see Ryoga in the finals.

Yuma watches III go, and jumps as her phone rings. She answers it, and Kotori tells her that Takashi and Tetsuo are shaken, but they’re going to be fine.

Yuma almost sobs with relief. “Okay,” she says, “Give them my best.” She hangs up and turns to Ryoga. “You were amazing,” she tells him.

Ryoga steps closer to her. “Yuma, you can’t go after IV like that again.”

“Of course I can,” Yuma retorts. “And I will. You think I’m going to let him get away with what he did to Rio?”

“I’m not asking you to do that,” Ryoga says. “I’m asking you to let me be the one to make him pay.”

Yuma’s anger flares. “She’s my best friend!”

“And she was my sister before she as your friend!” Ryoga cries. “I want to be the one to do this for her! And…!” He cuts off and takes a deep, shaky breath. “Yuma, IV is stronger than you think. He’s already beaten me once before, and I know it was by setting me up, but he’s had time to get stronger. And we both know that right now, dueling is dangerous. So if I go up against IV and lose, and something happens to me—”

“No!” Yuma interrupts. She covers her ears and shuts her eyes. “You shut up! Nothing will happen to you, you hear me?!”

She feels Ryoga’s hands on her wrists and he takes her hands off her ears. Yuma whimpers and squeezes her eyes shut even more tightly. A few tears slip down her cheeks.

Ryoga leans into Yuma, pressing his head against hers. “If something happens to me,” Ryoga says again, squeezing Yuma’s hands reassuringly, “Promise me that you’ll look after her.”

Yuma sobs and quickly closes her mouth. She shakes her head.

“Yuma, promise me,” Ryoga pleads.

“Why does it sound like you’re saying goodbye?” Yuma asks.

Ryoga laces his fingers between Yuma’s. “Because you already threatened IV, I don’t want him going after you because he wants to take one more person that I love away from me. So I’m not going to be around you much. Not until I know that IV isn’t going to hurt you.”

Yuma sniffles. “I can’t talk you out of it, can I?”

Ryoga leans back slightly and Yuma opens her eyes. Her heart skips a beat when she sees how Ryoga is looking at her. He wipes the tears from her cheeks, looking just as sad and afraid as she is, but more than that…

Yuma knows it’s coming. She closes her eyes as Ryoga leans close again, and he kisses her. Yuma holds tight to his hands, and when he pulls back after a moment, she follows him and kisses him again. Maybe she can just hold him here, and he’ll never leave, and they’ll both be safe from this stupid carnival of nightmares.

But it doesn’t work like that. Eventually, Ryoga pushes her away.

“Go get the rest of your heart pieces,” he says. He walks back to his motorcycle and drives off.

Yuma falls to her knees and wraps her arms around her chest, as if she can physically hold her heart together. Astral floats down next to her and wraps his arms around her shoulders.

“It’ll be alright,” Astral says as Yuma cries.

She doesn’t know if she believes him.


End file.
